Gothamist: Maple Syrup Monday Night!

chaindog

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 02:32:45 -0500

Maple syrup, septic smell, doesn't sound like they go together. Maybe a rural address is the key. The cost to commute may not be a bad way to go. Fresh air, breathing it is a worth a lot, maybe a day's pay. To change,to be free of the things that disgust one, might be just miles away. One, two, three, I just gotta be free!

cat

Wed, 15 Mar 2006 00:04:50 -0500

amazing. i emerged from a bar on eldridge monday night and immediately said, "why does it smell so good out here?" at first my friend was like "cigarettes. have one," but then i realized: syrup!! so great. my first time smelling it! huzzah!

sara*

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 16:20:43 -0500

I actually smelled it from the Marcy Avenue stop in Williamsburg. I thought about the million times I've read these articles on this site and thought to myself... "is this the infamous syrup smell?" I guess I was right.

pugsley

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 13:27:41 -0500

leave it to the city government to make poop smell like syrup. Another *exclusive* uncovered by gothamist.

janelle

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 13:00:13 -0500

awesome graphic, jen! i love both architecture AND maple syrup.

honey

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 12:48:16 -0500

smeeled it last night in fort greene while walking the dog around 10 pm. it is originating in manhattan or in jersey, since most of manhattan gets hit full force and only a little bit of brooklyn.

short stack

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 11:56:10 -0500

estranged, you're not alone -- the syrup smell is back in full force today at columbia. however, having read all these comments, i must say it longer smells as sweet...

Estranged Columbian

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 11:35:33 -0500

I smell the Maple Syrup. Its all over Columbia U.'s campus. (115th St.)

Maybe?

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 11:33:12 -0500

I've heard the same thing, Laura, from more than a couple people. It seems like this is a fairly new occurance, too. I don't remember the maple syrup smell before 2005 and I've lived here for over 10 years now.

christopher

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 11:15:26 -0500

I smelled it too on the corner of 11th street and Avenue B last night. It settled in right after this huge gust of wind from the east. It was totally awesome.

smitty

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:36:29 -0500

The Aladdin Bread factory is on 25th St. in Brooklyn and it frequently smells like maple syrup and cinnamon from whatever they are baking. Maybe it comes from there.

Laura

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:28:20 -0500

I have a coworker who is always with the conspiracy theories... he says that the maple syrup smell is a test to see how far noxious/poisonous gasses can travel. He says that it is a test to see how protected we may or may not be in case of terrorist action. Yikes!

short stack

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:23:08 -0500

i smelled it friday night when i left my office on the columbia campus. smk, your comment piqued my interest, so i did a little research. even if the smell is somehow linked to poo, it's much better than the stench on my a train this morning.

Dorothy

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:21:07 -0500

I smelled it for the first time last night- seeping through my windows too on 17th and 8th... In my sleepiness, I thought it was the smell of my leftover Chinese food haunting me!

fightthefatrobot

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:18:41 -0500

Four of us smelled it while we were sitting in an apartment on 13th and 1st last night around 9:30pm. It wafted in through the windows and prompted one of us to drink out of a bottle of fake syrup. Gross.

Alex

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 09:46:45 -0500

Smelled it on Smith St. in Boerum Hill around 10pm last night.

smk

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 09:41:50 -0500

although this may have little credibility, we were playing trivial pursuit last night and came across a question that told us urine and maple syrup share an odorific property.

ed itorialwe

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 08:48:38 -0500

In spite of the fact that we were sitting on the toilet, we didn't smell nothing.

Lacey

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 08:18:37 -0500

Definitely smelled it last night getting off the train at West 4th St. around 10pm. Was in the Village a while after that and didn't smell it again, though.

me

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 08:01:13 -0500

Last Friday evening, I smelled the maple syrup odor coming in through the open windows of my apt (about 10 blocks south of the Columbia campus). Missed it last night though.

Rob K.

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 07:21:23 -0500

I was walking my dog down on the water in Long Island City last night and the smell was powerful, but in a good, funny way. This huge intimidating mess of a city, and yet somehow it smells like a Denny's Grand Slam platter ...

A_B

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 02:30:23 -0500

Smelled it on 2nd Avenue from 42nd to 30th or so this evening, but only when the wind was blowing from uptown to downtown.

JESUS CHRIST

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 01:18:27 -0500

this totally comfirms it. If the guy at 4th and bowery smells maple syrup and the dude at canal street says that they are cleaning the septic tanks and it smells godawful and that's like ten blocks away then the wonderful smell of maple syrup is the foul stench of days and days and days of accummulated man dung! UGH! BLECH! someone get the dept of sanitations cleaning schedule and coincide them with the other incidents of "maple" syrup. Maybe this mystery can finally be solved.

JO Mamm

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 01:05:20 -0500

I don't know about the rest of you but they are cleaning out all the septic bins near the subways at Canal street right now! the streets smell like Paris Hilton's ass after she was dp'd. OMIGOD!!!!! It's kinda funny that all these NYU students are running the hell out! PEOPLE are running like a bat out of hell once they hit Canal street. I peeled an orange and used the skin as a citric mask until I got far away from it. I tested the maple syrup theory and biked like 10 blocks away and it does smell a lot different and more fruity. Maybe the most acrid smells of defecation aren't strong enought to carry and the smell you get is just filtered poop smell. Kinda like how you can get sewage but the evaporated water will get to you leaving the salt and crap behind. or maybe it's a smell that the department of transportation releases that coincides with the septic smell to mask it?

Stella

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 00:32:17 -0500

Living in Prospect Heights, I’ve missed every maple syrup incident that has occurred in the city the past couple of months and have come to think of the whole thing as an urban myth. But tonight I stepped outside of Swifts on 4th and Bowery for a cig between pints and immediately thought “Aunt Jemima.” The air reeked of warm, rich, sweet syrup that could only be associated with pancakes. At first I thought I was crazy but after consulting various construction workers and homeless folks (very reliable sources) in the vicinity to check my sanity it appears the syrup smell is indeed back.

Sixth Boro

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 00:22:41 -0500

smelled it on the turnpike by secacus, jerseys got mad eggos, yo.

craig

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 00:10:03 -0500

It's about time we knew what the FUCK THIS SMELL IS THAT HAS BEEN TORMENTING US FOR THE LAST 4 MONTHS IS.

newyorkette

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 23:39:05 -0500

I didn't smell it, maybe I'm too far uptown (157th & bway). All I smell is the Caporal Fried Chicken down the block. At least, I hope that's what it is....

Jen

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 23:25:03 -0500

Ugh, I'm going to need to fumigate my apartment.

Ethan

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 23:20:17 -0500

Hey from Astoria. I think JC is correct-a-mundo. It's humid out, and I am getting that Randall's Island down wind. Time to give the honey pot a good scraping out.

JESUS CHRIST

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 22:58:33 -0500

the smell is SHIT! seriously it's the Dept of sanitation's time of cleaning out septic tanks. Now if you are close to it it smells like total ass droppings but if you are like far away like 5-10 blocks away the diluted smell is similar to maple syrup.